1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to security chests and safes and, more particularly, is concerned with improved door mounting and locking features in a security safe.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Time delay depository safes designed to provide hold-up protection are widely employed in commercial environments. These safes typically utilize a door protected with a combination lock in conjunction with an overriding electronic or mechanical time delay mechanism. While these safes provide protection in the event of a hold-up, a drawback associated with them is that the combination lock provides a convenient method by which employees, in order to save time in reopening the safe door, can breach the security of the system by closing the safe door without scrambling the setting of the combination lock. In this mode a turn of the door handle will gain access to the contents of the safe and thus defeat the total security of the safe.
To obviate this drawback, one current practice is to add a conventional slam lock to the system which will engage if the door is closed. The slam lock then becomes the only locking element of the system protecting the safe, bypassing the higher security combination lock and boltwork mechanism. Since the lock and, in most cases, the boltwork mechanism are the UL, insurance and/or bank rated security elements, with these in a bypassed mode the safe no longer is effective as a rated unit and thus reverts to a level of no relative security value or protection. The slam lock is therefore an unacceptable back-up in that it negates the security rating of the safe, rendering it ineffective for the purpose intended. Also, the slam lock is an added expense that affects the profitability of the business, hence very few commerical safes are equipped with them.
Managers of commercial establishments using these safes must constantly cope with the problem of excessive training and supervision to assure that the safe door is locked and that the combination has been scrambled. Also, because of the risks involved, some companies have imposed a policy of immediate dismissal of the responsible employee when an unlocked condition is discovered. This policy is not a desirable solution in that it results in increased expenditures for hiring and training of new personnel.
Many safes also typically utilize doors mounted by by hinge arrangements which require disassembly of internal and external portions of the housing of the safe in order to remove the door. As a result, removal of the door can take several hours which increases the expenditures for service and maintenance of the safes.
Consequently, a need still exists for improvements in safe door mounting and locking so as to overcome the drawbacks of the prior art.